She Already Knows
by ACoz
Summary: Based on the song She Already Knows, by Erick Willis. It seems that the only thing I can actually make myself finish is supper sad short stories. That's what this is. P.S. you don't have to listen to the song to get the story. But if you do, I prefer the acoustic version.
1. Chapter 1

**It seems that I can't finish anything I start except super sad short stories. So, that's what I will write. Enjoy, in the bittersweet way I hope this creates. For you.**

 **Based on the song She Already Knows by Erick Willis, which is amazing (I prefer the acoustic version)**

 **I do not own Percy Jackson, or the song.**

I sigh and run my hands through my hair, it's getting late, the party is winding down, and I'm getting tired. I'm not exhausted, yet, but I can feel my neck getting stiff. I roll it out and take a look around from my vantage point in the corner of the gym.

There are still a few people dancing, though not as enthusiastically as earlier, and there are some people lazily picking at the leftover food. Most however are just sitting down at the round tables with white tablecloths placed throughout the room.

This is the end of our senior prom.

" _Percy," my mother looked very stern, "I don't care what extra curricular accomplishments you have, you're going to your senior year of school and getting your diploma."_

" _Mom, surely fighting in a war counts for_ something _, right? Why do I have to go to school still? I just kinda wanna lay around and play video games."_

" _No. You are going to school. Because eventually you will need a job, and you can't put "stopped the rise of Gaea" on your resume. No arguing. You and Annabeth are finishing school at Goode."_

" _Wait," I said, suddenly very serious, "Annabeth too?"_

" _Well, yeah. We can't very well separate you two. So she's just going to stay here. I talked to her-"_

 _I cut my amazing mother off with a hug, "Thank you mom!"_

 _She chuckled and returned the hug, "of course Percy."_

I looked around for my friends. Not like, demigod friends, they're all either at one of the camps or some other school. Or Jason, who is kinda all over the place because of his new job. Rachael goes here though (does a clear sighted mortal who is also an oracle count as a demigod friend?)

It was good that she went here with Annabeth and I, cause she already had a couple friends. So we just sort of merged in with them. They were pretty cool, and Annabeth gets along great with them too. Especially this one kid, Ethan, he's too smart for his own good. He's real big into astronomy. If I didn't know any better, I'd guess he was Athena's kid too, but he's not (we had Grover check).

I liked Ethan well enough and we were close friends, but I got along great with this kid named Jake. Dirty blonde hair, scruffy beard. Real big gamer.

Not a weekend went by where he and I, Ethan and I, or all three of us weren't at my house playing the PlayStation 4 with some blue cookies.

 _I answered the phone, "Hey Wise Girl, what's up? SON OF A BITCH!"_

 _Jake chuckled from his spot beside me._

 _On the other end of the line I heard, "Uh, you alright?"_

" _Yeah, Jake just got a headshot on me and it scared me," I paused for a moment, "more than it should have…"_

 _Annabeth laughed at me, "well, I'm just calling cause I have a question for Leo and I almost have our miniature rocket with mapping sonar done. We want it to fly across the Atlantic, or as far as it gets, and create a terrestrial map of the sea floor."_

" _Uh, alright," I said, scratching my head a bit, "that seems like something way above my pay grade, what do you need to ask me?"_

" _Ha, seaweed brain," she muttered to herself, then, "well, we're sending it over the ocean. That's kind of you're home turf. So, what should we name the rocket? Poseidon One, or Perseus One?"_

" _How about Zoe 101?"_

 _I could hear Leo laugh in the background, guess I was on speaker, then Annabeth groaned at me, "No Percy. I gave you your choices, pick from_ those _."_

" _hmm… call it Poseidon, I don't want cool things named after me, makes me feel weird. Especially when I didn't have anything to do with it, you guys built it."_

" _Alright great," she paused for a moment, then I could almost feel her smirk, "now, since you named it, would you mind going to retrieve it wherever it lands? It_ is _your home territory. And you owe me for letting you name it."_

 _I knew there would be a catch._

I found Rachel sitting at a table with Ethan, leaned back in her chair in a very unladylike way. They were laughing softly as they watched Jake try and make his way over there with plates of food balanced on his arm. I started over to sit with them while I waited.

" _Hey Wise girl," I said with a smile. The final bell had just rang and I was waiting for her to get out so we could walk home._

" _How was your Calculus class?"_

" _Incredibly boring," she started, "why does Mrs Duncan's voice put me to sleep so easily?" She laughed a little to herself._

" _Ha, nice. Hey I made something for you," I pulled a green piece of construction paper out of my pocket, it was folded in half._

 _Annabeth gave me a funny look and then opened the card. She read it out loud, suppressing her smile, "Dear Wise Girl, would you go to prom with me? Pretty please with ambrosia on top._

 _Love Seaweed Brain." She looked up to see me grinning from ear to ear, she had smiled at my card, that was my only real goal for it._

 _She laughed again at the look on my face, "Why is this written with a purple magic marker?"_

 _I blushed a little bit, "Uh. Cause I lost my pen…"_

 _She was quiet for a minute, then burst out laughing. I smiled at the sound. Then she reached around my neck and got on her toes to give me a kiss, "you know that that's ironic in every possible way, right? And of course I'll go with you seaweed brain." I smiled and she kissed me again._

I passed Jake on my way to our table and took two of the plates off of his arms before he dropped them. He smiled in thanks and we walked the rest of the way to the table. Where we put all the plates in the middle so our whole group could reach them. I plucked a particularly juicy looking grape from on top as I sat down forcefully. Rachael looked at me worried in that motherly way she does sometimes.

"You making it alright?"

I gave her a halfhearted smile, "yeah, I'm making it."

She met my eyes, and the sincerity in her eyes wouldn't let me look away, "You're lying."

It wasn't a statement that left room for argument, so I simply sighed. Then I caught her eye again and she nodded behind me. I turned around and saw Annabeth coming out of the bathroom. I stood to meet her.

" _Annabeth! Annabeth! They accepted me!"_

 _She looked up from her forty pound textbook, "What are you talking about seaweed brain?"_

" _Somehow Dad got me into their marine conservation program! I'm going to college! Somewhere actually took me even though I never made it through a full year except this one!" I knocked on the wooden end table beside me. There is still plenty of time for me to destroy the school (accidentally of course)._

 _Annabeth grinned and jumped to hug me, I caught her._

" _Well," she asked, "where? Who's the lucky school?"_

" _Florida," I said clearly and loudly, proud of my success. Then I watched her face slowly fall_.

"Have I told you you look beautiful today," I gave her a crooked grin.

She took half a second to compose herself, then looked up from her shoes with her shoulders set back and smirked at me, "Maybe a couple of times."

"You deserve to hear it your entire life," I told her with complete sincerity in my voice and eyes.

She faltered, only for a second, but I saw it. Then she smiled, "C'mon seaweed brain, there's still time for one more dance." Then she took my hand and lead me to the floor.

" _What's wrong wise girl?" I asked, confused about why she would be upset about such great news._

" _Oh, up, nothing," I knew she was lying. We always know what the other one means, so I waited on her to continue. "It's just that, Ethan's dad is the Dean of a school, and Ethan is going to that school. He told me that he convinced his father to take a look at me, and I was just offered a full ride." she smiled here, but it looked pained and I could see the tears in her eyes. "no working through school, no student loans, none of it. I can get through college without selling my soul. I may be smart but I've missed so much school in my life because I'm a demigod that I would never get any kind of scholarship normally."_

By this time the select few still dancing had decided it was time to start finding their jackets, ties, high heels, etc. So it was us on the floor, alone.

" _Wise girl that's great!" looking at her, it didn't seem like she thought so. She looked confused. Like she didn't know what to do._

We danced together for the first song, it happened to be a slow song, and we held each other close, gently swaying because neither of us really knew how to dance.

" _Percy it's… the School…" she looked down._

" _Go on wise girl, whatever it is, we'll be ok."we'll figure it out. By this time I had a pretty good idea of what_ _she was going to say._

 _She looked me in the eyes, "Percy it's on the west coast. Our schools are on_ _opposite sides of the country_."

The DJ played a more upbeat tune after that. But Annabeth's and my emotions were running so high at that time we didn't change position at all. Forgoing the need to stay on beat with the much greater desire to have each other as close as possible.

" _Oh."_

" _yeah."_

 _A long silence filled the room. Eventually, I had to break it. I could see Annabeth getting upset, and that is the last thing I wanted._

" _Well," I forced a smile, "we don't have to worry about it now."_

 _She scoffed at me, "seaweed brain we can't just ignore this."_

 _I thought for a moment, "well no, but how about we just, procrastinate a little," I grinned, "how about we just enjoy the rest of our senior year. And deal with it later. How about right after prom. That's still a while away." as if somehow saying out loud that that was plenty of time would make it so. But I knew nothing would ever be long enough._

 _Nonetheless, she smiled, "alright, we'll procrastinate. Not ignore," then she stick her pinky out at me, "Right after prom?"_

 _I looped mine though hers, laughing at how we could make such a real world issue childish, "right after prom."_

I guess the DJ noticed we weren't really in the partying mood (since we were the only ones on the floor still, and two out of about a dozen still at the dance at all at that point) because before the third song he announced it would be the last. And he played another slow song, I'm assuming for us. Not once did we change position.

Then, halfway through the song, I worked on the courage to separate enough to look her in the eyes. They were red rimmed, but she was still beautiful.

I took a deep breath and said what neither of us wanted to, "we need to talk about this, don't we."

She nodded. I sighed. And for a moment the silence between us was tactile, but not necessarily uncomfortable, simply alien.

I leaned back and looked her in the eyes one more time before it ended, "Annabeth… whatever happens in life. Just know I love you. I love you now, and I always will."

She buried her head in my shoulder, finally sobbing, "I know Percy. I know, I love you too."


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own PJO, or the song this is based off of**

Let's just say, freshman year sucked. The workload was ungodly, the teachers narcissistic asshats, and the students ignorant. And under it all, I hadn't learned how to hide my heartbreak yet.

It's the first semester of my junior year now though, and things are better. Mostly because I met a new friend, Austin. Son of Apollo, never went to camp (his scent wasn't strong enough to be a problem), redhead, tall, swimmers body, even more than me. I'm pretty sure he's about negative five percent body fat (he was a wrestler in high school). He's like, the best friend anybody could ask for. A bit naive at times, but always sweet and caring. I told him everything about me, and he listened carefully. Not everything was gloomy though, we laughed and joked like friends should.

Anyway, I had just called mom to see if I could bring Austin to our house for Christmas this year (being a demigod with a sad, parent-less backstory of his own, he had nowhere else to go) she laughed at my childish ways and told me sure.

An hour later she called me back to tell me Annabeth was bringing a friend too.

You see, after we decided to take a break, we made it perfectly clear that we _would_ still be friends. And for all the holidays and stuff, we would hang out.

Also, if we're still in love after college, we can get back together again. The idea of a long distance relationship is just too scary, even for us.

Anyways, back on track, Annabeth and I spent the last few Christmas' together at Moms house.

We had resolved that things would remain platonic in the short time we were together though. That didn't work out very well however since we both found out that we can't keep our hands off each other. The overwhelming mix of emotions seeming too large to try to work through, we focused on our physical desires instead. So it quickly became a friends with benefits type of situation, the details of which I will keep to myself.

What that means is, every break in school, when Annabeth and I met up, it was a great time, and if I closed my eyes and just breathed in the smell of her strawberry shampoo, it almost felt like nothing had ever changed.

Austin and I got to Moms house two days before Annabeth was scheduled to told us that the friend she was bringing in was actually Ethan, our friend from high school. So obviously I was excited, I get to have best friend, friend I haven't seen since high school, and confusing friends with benefits/love of my life all together with me. Who wouldn't be excited?

The day Annabeth was scheduled to come in (two days before Christmas) mom sent Austin and I to the store to pick up some stuff.

As we were walking back from the store, each of us holding a bag, I caught a glimpse of blonde curls up ahead.

I told Austin I thought I saw Annabeth up ahead and we started weaving through the pedestrian traffic trying to catch up. When we got a little closer, I knew for sure it was her, I'd know her anywhere. I also saw that Ethan was with her, and when I was almost close enough to call out to them, I saw it. Her fingers had calmly reach out to tug gently against Ethan's as they walked. She held his hand, and he smiled at her.

For half of a second, my world stopped, then resumed as my overwhelming desire to be _near_ her won out over my rapidly deteriorating heart and I surged through the crowd again, with Austin on my heels.

When I called out to them they stopped and looked around, smiling when they noticed me.

When we caught up to them I looked at Annabeth, then Ethan, then back to Annabeth eyes, a wordless question to her in my eyes. She looked back at me, with a serious look in her eyes and a near imperceptible nod. I saw it thought, we always know what the other is saying.

I wanted to tell them was mad, I wanted to say I was hurt, I wanted to say that I still love her, and I would still give her the world I wanted to fight somebody, anybody, a small part of me wanted to pretend I hadn't seen anything and move on with the formalities of introducing Austin, and an unsettling majority of me was happy for them, that they were happy. All of this happened in less than two seconds, and in the end, when I opened my mouth, all that came out was, "I miss you."

It was short, then again, everything seemed too short to convey everything I felt. When she looked back into my eyes though I could see in hers that she had heard everything else I had wanted to say too.

"I know," She said. She always knows what I mean.


End file.
